


Thin Line

by pho3b3



Category: The Society (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, allie tries to make herself vomit, also talk of domestic violence and abuse, because she thinks the others are trying to poison her, but other than that everything else shouldn't be a trigger, harry loves allie a lot, just wants to make things right, theres a couple of warnings though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 10:00:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19148773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pho3b3/pseuds/pho3b3
Summary: When the truth comes out Allie is set free and asked to to be part of the co-leadership. Allie is untrusting, especially towards one Harry Bingham who just wants to make things right.





	Thin Line

**Author's Note:**

> WARNINGS
> 
> ALLIE TRIES TO MAKE HERSELF VOMIT BECAUSE SHE THINKS THE OTHERS ARE TRYING TO POISON HER 
> 
> THERE IS A SMALL AMOUNT OF TALK ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND ABUSE BUT ITS VERY MINIMAL
> 
> Also this hasn't been properly edited so there is probably a mountain of mistakes

She couldn’t tell whether it was the middle of the night or lunchtime, the wine cellar was this big cloak of darkness, always. When she kept Dewy down here the light was on during the day and off when it was time to sleep, this was just another one of Campbell’s torture tactics. She didn’t know where they were keeping Will, maybe they saw him as useful so now he was up there helping them keep her captive in exchange for freedom. She couldn’t blame him if that was the case, she’d would do the same thing. On the other hand, maybe they’ve killed him, like she killed Dewy. The thought makes her shudder, which isn’t an easy feat when her right hand is cuffed to something, god knows what. 

It’s been weeks and she’s seen no one but Campbell. He comes down approximately every three days with a sandwich and a can of flat lemonade. Then he sits and watches her struggle to eat and drink with only one useable hand, a satisfied smirk on his face that she can’t really see in the darkness, but she knows it’s there. When she hears the cellar door swing open and then the thunderous sound of someone running down the steps, she thinks it’s feeding time. But then the room is flooded with light. She hides her face in her bare arm, being left down there in nothing but a tank top and jeans, until her eyes adjust to the light. When she finally looks up it’s not Campbell standing in front of the clear door, it’s Grizz grinning wildly, swinging a set of keys on his thumb. The two don’t say a word as Grizz unlocks the door to where she’s kept, quietly chuckling to himself as he enters. She thinks, just for a brief second, that her best friend has gone mad. He wordlessly makes his way over to her, studying her in the intense Grizz kind of way, before grabbing her chained wrist and swiftly unlocking it. 

“Grizz, what’s going on?” The sound of her gravelly voice makes her cringe, but he’s not bothered. He chuckles louder and then throws his arms around her middle, burying his face in her matted curly blonde hair. She wraps her arms the best she can around him but after five seconds they ache and she has to put them down. 

“You’re free Allie. You and Will, you’re both free. The coup is done. Campbell has no control anymore. Elle, she, she ruined him,” she pinches herself, hard. Grizz follows the movement and immediately rubs over the red mark with a calloused thumb, concern etched on his face. 

“So, I can leave? I can just walk up those stairs like nothing happened? I won’t get killed? Who’s in charge now? Is it Elle? What did she do?” She wants to just be able to trust Grizz but it doesn’t make sense. He sits in front of her and crosses his arms over his chest. It’s now that she can get a really good look at him. His hair is longer and greasier than she remembers, dark bags sit under his eyes, there’s a three inch cut above his eyebrow and the beginning of a moustache above his lip. He smiles at her encouragingly before clearing his throat. 

“This morning, before church, she came up to the guys and I, said she needed us to stand guard when she gave her speech. She’s been giving speeches every morning while you’ve been in here so we thought it was kind of strange but when she got up we did too. The speech started as normal, reminding us that we still have hope and all of that. But then it changed, she started saying something about the truth and how we should know it, I always knew the truth Allie I just didn’t know how to help you, anyway she pulls out her phone and asks for quiet. Then she presses play, and the sound of Campbell laughing about how stupid the town was and how he had everyone of us under his thumb now that he had gotten you out of the way booms through her speakers. The next video went into detail about his plan, about how the rigging was all a lie. There was a few more videos, all of them just as incriminating as the next. Campbell was fuming but he didn’t try and step towards her because as soon as he stood he was knocked on the ground, hands behind his back until Jason could cuff him. Before we could take him away Elle said she wanted us to know one more thing. She pulled up her top, nearly her whole stomach was blue and purple Allie. The boys took him away somewhere, I was dragged here by Lexie, Harry and Elle. They wanted me to come and get you, they’re upstairs with tea and the Lexie’s cooking you something, she said something about Campbell not feeding you and not letting her down to see you. You’re okay now Allie,” he stands up, knees cracking more than an 17 year old’s should, and then offers her a hand. She grabs it and tries to pull herself up but her arms and legs protest. Grizz quickly grabs her under the arms and helps her up. He keeps a stable arm around her waste as they slowly make their way to the stairs. Allie eternally grateful for Grizz’s never-ending patience as they take a minute to walk up each step. 

Allie wants some time to process everything. Process what Elle did for her, what might happen to her if they can’t lock up Campbell, Elle has essentially sacrificed herself for Allie, if something happens to her Allie would hate herself more than she already does. She needs time to figure out how she’s going to deal with those who betrayed her. Most importantly she needs sleep. But she realises she’s not going to get any of that when she and Grizz finally enter the main part of the house, three sets of eyes immediately land on her. Someone gasps, Lexie she thinks, and someone lets out a sob, it was Elle, definitely Elle. Grizz leads her to the table where there’s a steaming cup of tea and a heaped plate of bacon and eggs waiting for her. All four of them watch as she eats, slowly at first but then she speeds up, like she’ll never get another meal again. The eyes are still on her when she finally stops, no one has said a word still. 

She looks at Lexie, who hated her, then she looks at Harry, who threw her under the bus like it was nothing, then Elle, who poisoned multiple people including her, and finally she looked at Grizz, trusting, unsuspecting Grizz. She glances down at her now nearly empty plate, and then it dawns on her. 

She shoves her fingers down her throat as far as she can, tears running down her face as she gags but no food seems to be coming up. Harry is the first to jump up, grabbing both of her wrists and pulling her fingers out of her mouth while yelling at the others to do something. Allie fights against him, not wanting him to be near her let alone touch her. She’s screaming and desperately trying to get her hands free so she can get the poisoned food out of her system before it’s too late. Grizz turns her to face him, he’s speaking but she can’t hear him over her crying and the three other people yelling at each other. 

“Get off me!” She struggles against Harry some more but he doesn’t let go.

“No because you’ll do it again, can you please just calm down Allie,” he screams back. 

“No! You’re all trying to poison me!” They all stop talking at once. Lexie moves Grizz out of the way and moves Allie’s face so she’s looking directly at her. Both girls have tears streaming down their faces but only one of them has Harry Bingham gripping their arms so tight it’s probably going to bruise. 

“Allie, listen to me. I cooked the food, just now, especially for you. I did not poison it. I just wanted you to eat something, Campbell hasn’t let you eat has he?” Allie takes several deep breaths. Her eyes dart around the room, to Elle who’s slumped against the kitchen cupboards with her head in her hands, to Grizz who’s leaning up against the wall with his head tilted back, and then to Lexie who’s begging her to believe her. She slumps in the chair and sighs. 

“I’m sorry, I just – I – I don’t-“

“It’s okay, I wouldn’t trust us either if I were you. But you can trust us, Okay? You’re not going to get hurt anymore, none of us want that,” Allie nods slowly, this seems to reassure Lexie. “Harry I think you can let her go now,” 

“No I don’t- “

“Let. Her. Go.” Harry sighs but eventually lets go. He doesn’t move from behind her chair though, they clearly trust her as much as she trusts them. 

Lexie leans forward and grabs the tea she made for Allie and takes a big mouthful and swallows. 

“Now you know the tea isn’t poisoned either,” she hands the cup of tea to Allie who takes it with shaky hands. And then to further prove her point she grabs a piece of bacon that Allie hasn’t eaten and pops it into her mouth, chewing happily. 

“Do you want more?” Harry asks with a hand on her shoulder. She quickly shrugs it off. 

“I want sleep,” 

“Oh okay, yeah sure. You can come back with me, I can keep an eye on you,” 

“I think I would rather go back with Grizz,” Grizz shoots up at the sound of his name and awkwardly scratches the back of his neck. 

“Uh, I’m kind of living with Sam, Becca and little Eden, not the best place for recovery,” Grizz lets out a cough. Allie manages to send him a warm smile that he gratefully returns. 

“I’ll stay here, or with Elle or Lexie then,”

“No one lives here and both of our places are too hectic for someone who’s recovering,” Elle speaks for the first time and Allie wishes she hadn’t.

“What about Will? Where is he?”

“With Kelly, she came and picked him up while I was making you food,” Lexie spoke quietly. 

“So I don’t have a choice? I’m trapped, again? I might as well just go back down to the cellar,” Allie spits out. 

“It’s only for a few days, and my house is huge. I can just come in and check on you every half hour or so, other than that you won’t know I’m around,” Harry’s voice is strained, like he can’t fathom why she wouldn’t want to be left with him. 

“I don’t know why you’re so worried about my recovery when you’re all the reason I need to recover in the first place,” there’s an awkward silence, no one wanting to face the truth. “Except for you Grizz, obviously,” 

“We’re trying to make it right Allie, let us,” Harry places his hand on her shoulder again, she’s shrugs it off for a second time. As much as she doesn’t want to go with him, she’s scared. She’s scared to be alone after all of this. What if the guard can’t keep Campbell contained? Will has ran off with Kelly, leaving her to seek comfort in one of the few people that have left her scarred. 

“I’ll go with you. But this doesn’t mean anything. This doesn’t mean I like you. This doesn’t mean I forgive you. As far as I’m concerned whatever relationship we had, it’s gone now, and I don’t think it’ll ever come back, got it?” She’s looking directly at Harry now who squirms under her harsh glare. He just nods his head. 

She shakily gets to her feet, refusing the help from Harry. Elle stands and hesitates for a second before throwing her arms around Allie’s neck. Allie wraps the one arm that’s not holding a chair around Elle’s middle and lets the girl cry into her hair for a minute before pulling away. 

Harry offers her his arm, which she has to take because she can’t take the chair with them. Together the two leave with promises of another conversation when Allie is feeling stronger, Allie wants to argue but she’s tried. Tired of fighting with people, tired of trying to establish herself as her own person when it’s very clear that her release is conditional. It’s on the condition that she’s not mad at them. It’s on the condition that she’ll do whatever they want her to do. She might be free physically, but mentally she’s still a prisoner. 

The sun shocks Allie, like she had forgotten that it exists. She stops, pulling Harry back a little, so she can bask in it for just a few seconds, before continuing the shaky walk to Harry’s car. Harry helps her in and then buckles her seatbelt for her. 

“I’m not an invalid,”

“I know Allie, I know,” He quickly runs around to the driver’s side of the car, buckling his own seatbelt before starting the short drive to the Bingham residence. The drive is five minutes of tense silence, Harry’s eyes flicking to her every few seconds like she might jump out of the moving car any minute. She would if she were strong enough. 

Before long Harry pulls into his driveway, the house as impressive as she remembers. They make the awkward journey into the house, Harry has to save her from falling multiple times. Once they’re in Harry turns to lock the door and then directs his attention to her again, eyes flicking up to her matted hair. 

“Do you want a shower or something? I could run you a bath?” 

“I need sleep,”

“Right of course, do you want something to sleep in?” He says eyeing her grubby tank top. Her cheeks turn pink, Harry doesn’t seem to notice. She nods her head and he smiles, grateful that he can actually help her with something. “Let’s get you into the spare room that’s just off the loungeroom and then I’ll run and grab you something comfortable to sleep in,” the run he leads her to is unsurprisingly a mess, but there’s a bed and blankets and multiple pillows so it’ll do. Harry is only gone for a minute or two before he bursts back through the door with a pair of grey sweatpants and a navy jumper. 

“Do you need help?” if she’s honest, yes, she does need help, but she doesn’t want it, especially not from him. So, she shakes her head, he hesitates but eventually mutters a quiet sleep well before leaving, closing the door behind him. 

***

When she wakes up the room is much darker than when she fell asleep. She must have slept for hours but she still feels like she could with a few more. She slowly sits up, her limbs not protesting as much as they were before. She glances around the room and jumps slightly when she sees Harry bundled in blanket on an armchair across the room, the moonlight shining straight into his eyes. She can hear the slight snores he’s letting out. She should’ve known he wasn’t going to just let her be. 

She stands and tries to make her way out of the room but right before she’s able to make it to the door she slips on a sock and is sent flying into the door, she was able to throw her arms out in time so she didn’t crash into the door. Her fall, however, woke the sleeping boy. 

“Allie! Are you alright?” He’s by her side in seconds, an arm around her waist to help get her stable again. 

“I’m fine I just tripped on a sock or something,” he lets out a sleep riddled laugh. She straightens up, removes the arm from her waist and then makes her to the kitchen. She can hear him following her and she wants to scream, but she gets what he’s doing. He knows he fucked up, he knows that his actions caused her a world of pain, and this is his attempt to make himself feel better. He thinks helping recover, doing whatever she needs him to, just being there in case something happens, makes it all better. It doesn’t.

“Are you feeling better?” He flicks the kettle and reaches up to grab two mugs down from the cupboards. The loud whistle of the kettle makes it hard for her to think, the pierce sound filling her brain, leaving no room for anything else. 

“You don’t have to do this, you know? In fact I would prefer it if you didn’t” to avoid looking at him she opens the fridge and grabs out the carton of milk, noting the entire shelf of beer and a lack of anything substantial, before closing it again. She hears him let out a shaky breath. 

“I gave him blankets,” he chokes out.

“What?” 

“I gave him blankets and a pillow, to give to you. He had smirked at me and said that he should’ve thought of it earlier. But you’re so tired, I could see it earlier and I can see it now, you never got the blankets did you?” he drags his trembling hands over his face as the whistling of the kettle slowly stops. Her initial reaction is to make him feel better, tell him that Campbell gave her the blankets, that the exhaustion was just mental. Then she remembers that he doesn’t deserve to feel better, that he should know the truth. Isn’t that what Elle said?

“No I didn’t,” 

“Fuck!” he screams as his fist flies into one of the cupboard doors. She flinches, Harry must see it because his face immediately softens. “I’m sorry, it’s just frustrating. I feel dumb, he must’ve been laughing to himself the entire time he was putting those blankets and pillow back. It’s okay, we can treat him just as bad, if not worse than he treated you,” Harry lets out another laugh as he dunks the tea bags into their mugs. 

“We?” she glances up at the clock, it’s 8:30. Harry hands her the mug of tea, takes a big mouthful of his own before clearing his throat. 

“We need your help Allie, we can’t do this without you, the past month has shown us that,” rage bubbles in her stomach, over taking any form guilt she had earlier. 

“Maybe you should’ve thought about that before locking me in a wine cellar for a month, trusting a psychopath to give me what I need to survive,” Harry sighs and slams the mug down on the counter. 

“Don’t do it for me, or Lexie or even Grizz, do it for the town Allie. They’re terrified and young and they trusted you. They need you, we need you,” he pauses, running his hands through his hair. “I need you,” a month ago hearing that from Harry would’ve given her butterflies, now it just makes her nauseous. 

“I guess I don’t really have a choice, huh?” the next few minutes are spent drinking their tea in silence, the truth of the situation squashing any attempts of a conversation. When’s she’s finished Allie places the mug in the sink and heads back towards the spare room. “I’m going back to bed, don’t be in that chair when I wake up.” 

*** 

He’s not in the chair when she wakes up the next morning, but she can tell that he has been. His shoes sit in front of the chair, the blanket bunched up differently to the way it was the night before. He’s left another pair of sweatpants, another jumper (a red one this time) and a pair of black boxers that make her blush just a little on the end of her bed with a note that just says _Please shower_. Something about the note feels strangely normal. She takes the clothes, making a mental note to go back to hers to grab some of her own clothes later, and heads to the bathroom that she remembers from the many parties she attended back in West Ham. She washes her hair three times and her body twice and still doesn’t feel clean but she’s scared of a water shortage so she gets out and changes into the new clothes. 

There’s a large group of people gathered in the kitchen when she walks in, they all turn to look at her. The group consists of Harry, Lexie, Elle, Grizz, Helena, Kelly, the rest of the guard and Will. Will looks no different to the way he did a month ago, she can’t help but be a little pissed. Despite that she smiles and wraps him in a hug, one that he returns half-heartedly. She can tell that Will has changed his mind about them again, but she doesn’t really mind that much. 

“So, I guess you’re all here to talk about working together?” A plate of toast is sat in front of her. She tries not to jump when a set of arms wrap around her middle, they belong to Helena she realises once she’s calmed down. Harry nods at the toast with raised eyebrows, with a roll of her eyes she starts to eat. 

“You said to me a few days before it all went down that we could work together and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. I think we could all come up with a way to do things that would make everyone happy. We need you to help do that, and to be the public figure of it all. No one trusts us anymore, understandably,” Lexie sounds like she’s been practicing that speech for weeks, she probably has been. Allie nods her head, everyone seems to visibly relax. 

“What have you done with Campbell?” She twists in Helena’s arms, who tenses at the mention of the psychopath. She’s looking at Luke but it’s Clarke who speaks. 

“He was a danger to society, we dealt with him accordingly,” Grizz pushes off the counter with eyebrows furrowed. 

“You killed my boyfriend’s brother?”

“Your boyfriend wanted him dead Grizz and look what he did to Allie, what he did to Elle!” Clarke switches between gesturing to Allie to gesturing to Elle wildly. 

“I’m fine,” Allie protests. 

“You’re not and you know it” Harry fires back. 

“It doesn’t matter! We can’t keep going around killing people, okay? The first thing we need to figure out, what are we going to do with people who do the wrong thing?” Helena finally lets go of her and moves back into Luke’s arms. She can feel Harry’s eyes on her, their conversation clearly not over. Elle’s hand shoots up suddenly like she’s a pre-schooler. “Elle you can just speak,” Allie says softly. 

Elle stands straighter, letting her arm fall to her side. “Right, yeah, I knew that,” she clears her throat, squirming under the eyes of everyone. “My dad was the sheriff, when I went back to my place I think I could the keys to the station. We could just lock them up in the cells there. There’s room for four in each cell and there’s three cells, I don’t think we’ll get more than twelve prisoners at a time, right?” Harry scoffs but doesn’t say anything.

“It might not be enough but it’s a start, I’ll come with you to check it out later?” Grizz smiles at her encouragingly. The room is tense, no one will look Allie in the eye, except for Harry who won’t look anywhere else. 

“What? What aren’t you all saying? I have no power here, say what you want people, I can’t do shit about it,” Allie yells, flailing her arms around for emphasis. It was then that she realised nine looks of guilt and pity is far worse than one. 

“We’re so sorry Allie, you were a great leader. We should never have abandoned you like that,” Helena is the one who speaks but every single person nods their heads in agreement, aside from Will who has been on her side the whole time, instead he just shoots her a small smile. 

“We were thinking that we should just implement your rules again. With slight alterations. No curfew, the guard as agreed to have someone walking around at all times, they don’t mind. People can give their top three preferences for that month and then we can assign people accordingly. House owners can choose who’s living with them, as long as there is at least three people for every bedroom. Everything else stays the same,” another practiced Lexie speech, Allie figures. All eyes are on her again. The society worked great just as it was, before everything, but she was seen as some sort of dictator, she hated that. These alterations are small and shouldn’t change the dynamic too much, and most importantly, they’ll make people happy. 

“I don’t see why that couldn’t work,” Lexie smiles at her softly and takes her hand. 

“We’re going to be great leaders.” 

***

THREE MONTHS LATER 

*** 

“Tom I’m sorry, I know that clean up wasn’t one of your preferences but all your preferences were filled by the time we got to you and someone needs to clean otherwise the town is disgusting. But, we’ll make sure that you get your first preference next month, okay?” To further prove her point she grabs a piece of paper and a pen and scribbles _Tom Wilson – First preference_ and then sticks it to the wall of the leaders office, along with the other important notes. Some of the notes are stupid, like _Never let Allie make the morning speeches when she’s hungover_ that had come about one Sunday when she vomited into a trashcan in front of everyone, Harry found it hilarious. Other notes are more serious, _Jess is on her last chance for drunk and disorderly, enforce curfew next time?_ the system worked well, since it was nearly impossible to have meetings altogether. 

The boy in front of her sighs, frustrated, but nods in understanding. He mutters out a thanks before storming out, nearly shoving Harry into the doorway as he goes. Ignoring the boy who most likely just watched that whole interaction and didn’t even try to step in, she flips her head over and quickly gathers her hair into a messy sort of bun that it is bound to fall out as soon as she gets up and moving. 

“You’re getting better at handling that,” 

“Yeah, no thanks to you,” she bites back, turning to face the large file of papers Bean and Gordie dropped off that morning. So much paper just to say the same thing they did at the beginning of the shared reign, they’re still no closer to finding their way back. Harry scoffs and sidles up behind her, hands on her chair, chin resting on her shoulder as reads over shoulder. 

“I don’t know, I think I account for much of your increased patience,” she can practically hear the smirk in his voice. 

“Watch it Bingham, you’re walking a very thin line,” he spins the chair around so she’s facing him. He’s clean shaven and his smile is genuine, reaching his eyes and everything. 

“Oh, am I now?” he gives her the signature Bingham smirk, the same one that weaselled his way back into her good books and then eventually weaselled him back into her heart. He presses his forehead against hers and takes her hand. “Seriously though, three months ago I was walking a very thin line, huh? I was sure I would never get you back, that we would never even be friends again. But look at us now huh? Running a town together, with Lexie, Grizz and Elle too, but mainly together,” she lets out a laugh, it was mainly she and Grizz running everything but Harry can think what he wants. 

“That’s because you’re a weasel,” Harry throws his head back laughing, she’s grateful that they can joke like this. “Weaselling your way in like you hadn’t done anything wrong. I was so determined to not let you do that,” Allie smiles sadly at him, the memories of her stubbornness filling her with guilt. Harry brushes his thumb over the scar on her forehead, the only reminder of what had happened, that and her phobia of the dark. 

“Well, I’m glad that you did let me,” he tucks her hair behind her ear and leans in to connect their lips. As she returns the kiss like it’s second nature, she decides that she’s glad too.


End file.
